Milk production in the U.S. in January totaled 16.04 billion pounds, down 0.6 percent from January of 2009. Production per cow increased 33 pounds to average 1,766 but the number of dairy cows declined 227,000 from a year ago to 9.085 million head. However, there were 3,000 more cows than in December. Cow numbers had declined every month in 2009.
Milk production continued to decline in California in January, 3.37 billion pounds down 2.4 percent from a year earlier. The Golden State’s dairy herd declined 72,000 head to 1.76 million cows while production per cow increased 30 pounds to 1,915.
Wisconsin milk production increased 4.7 percent in January to 2.16 billion pounds. The Badger State dairy herd increased 5,000 head to 1.26 million cows and production per cow jumped 50 pounds to 1,715.
Of the 23 major dairy states, 13 saw a decline in milk production compared to a year ago, 9 had an increase and one, Indiana, held steady.
The revised dairy production numbers for December, 14.6 billion pounds of milk down 0.7 percent from a year earlier and 0.1 percent higher than the preliminary estimate last month.
So the final numbers for 2009 have total milk production in the United States at 189 billion pounds down 0.3 percent from 2008. Production per cow for 2009 averaged 20,576 a 181 pound increase from the previous year while the number of cows in the country slipped 1.2 percent.
For the year, California’s milk production slipped 4.1 percent to 39.5 billion pounds while Wisconsin production increased 3.1 percent to 25.2 billion pounds.
There were 54,942 licensed dairy herds in the U.S. at the end of 2009 a loss of 2,185 herds in the last year. Wisconsin ended the year with 13,170 licensed dairy herds, down 560 from 2008. California lost 45 herds down to 1,820.
- Idaho lost 35 ending with 600,
- Arizona lost 10 down to 120 herds.
- New York dropped 150 herds ending with 5,470,
- Pennsylvania fell 270 to 7,400.
- Illinois lost 110 herds ending with 850
- Indiana gained 10 to 1,680
- Iowa lost 130 to 1,890
- Missouri lost 20 to 1,740
- Nebraska lost 55 to 285
- South Carolina gained 15 to end at 95
- South Dakota lost 65 to 425
Over the past decade, the U.S. dairy herd started at 9.199 million cows in 2000, slipped to 9.05 million in 2005, grew to 9.315 million in 2008 and slipped back to 9.2 million in 2009 so the dairy herd ended the decade about even with where it started. But a much different story as far as the amount of milk each cow produced. The average production per cow jumped from 18,197 pounds in 2000 to 20,576 pounds in 2009, a 13.1 per cent increase for the decade. Yearly milk production increased each year from 167.39 billion pounds in 2000 to 189.98 billion in 2008 before slipping to 189.3 billion in 2009.
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